What Ralph Waldo Emerson thinks about America

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American essayist and lecturer (1803 to 1882); began his career as a Unitarian minister in Boston; author of essays including Self-Reliance, History, The Over-Soul and Fate.

Ralph Waldo Emerson did not write this page.

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Only Ralph Waldo Emerson on America. See everyone on America

1 dated position, 1837, in their own words. Our reading of what Ralph Waldo Emerson has said — not written or endorsed by them.

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1. 31 Aug 1837

   Our readingAmericans have listened too long to European culture, and the American spirit is suspected of being timid and imitative

   Europe

   Their wordsWe have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe. The spirit of the American freeman is already suspected to be timid, imitative, tame.

   ↗Miscellanies: Nature, Addresses, and Lectures (Phillips, Sampson, 1856)gutenberg.org All 8 from this book